


Harry's First Love

by Cheerful_Clatter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Eventual Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter, F/M, Fluff Smut & Angst, Lovers to Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24701569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheerful_Clatter/pseuds/Cheerful_Clatter
Summary: Before there was Luna in his life, another Ravenclaw had captured Harry's heart, and he had captured hers. It was not fated to last forever, but they'd never forget each other. Two key scenes from Harry's relationship with Cho Chang.
Relationships: Cho Chang/Harry Potter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Harry's First Love

**Author's Note:**

> Standard disclaimer about how all legal rights to Harry Potter books and characters of course belong to J. K. Rowling and my story idea is my own intellectual property, because if I didn't put this here, who knows what sort of trouble I'd get into.
> 
> Didn't expect to be posting something so soon after my last fic, but while writing that one I really became interested in the idea of Harry having been with Cho for a while before his relationship with Luna took off. Cho seems underappreciated in the fandom, and the more I thought about it, the more it struck me that her and Harry may have simply been a case of a good pairing that tried to take off at the wrong time. In fact, having written this, I think they've now surpassed Harry/Ginny as my second favorite pairing. He'll still always be with Luna in the end, though.
> 
> Cho is a character who is not fully fleshed out in canon, which meant I needed to do some work building on to what is known about her. Even her name is a bit ambiguous (and, some have charged, stereotypical): "Cho" could most certainly be Korean, while "Chang" is more likely Chinese. For that matter, the Chang family line could also hail from Taiwan or Singapore - countries with large Chinese populations. While I left their ultimate country of origin unspecified, I do know that many people of Chinese heritage in the UK trace their ancestry to the south of China, often by way of Hong Kong - and as the plot details revealed themselves to me, it did make more sense for Cho to be Chinese than Korean.
> 
> Unlike "College Sweetheart", which made reference to Harry and Cho having previously dated in a Muggle AU, this fic is once again set firmly back in the magical world. Rated E instead of M because the sex scene here is a bit more graphic than the preceding fic.

**I. Year of the Rooster**

_2005 - Cho Chang's Apartment_

In hindsight, Harry supposed, it was for the best that his first attempt to date Cho Chang a decade ago at Hogwarts had imploded so badly. Although the misunderstanding about Hermione during that disastrous Valentine's Day had been easy enough to clear up, the Marietta Edgecombe situation had driven a sharper wedge between them. So, too, did Harry realize the mistake of attempting to woo Cho while she was still grieving over Cedric. With Sirius, Dumbledore, and so many other people he had known still alive back then, he had not yet understood grief in the same way Cho had - even if he had felt regretful for Cedric's death. Nor had he even felt that inclined toward dating for the two years afterward: the knowledge of the impending final battle had become more important in Harry's mind, and he found himself resisting all overtures made by any girls, be they Ginny Weasley or Romilda Vane.

Which isn't to say that there had been absolutely nothing to gossip about: Harry had, after all, brought Luna Lovegood with him to the Slug Club for Christmas that one year, and nobody had ever really been able to decipher whether that was simply a gesture of friendship or a full-on date. It was clear enough to anyone paying close enough attention to Harry's circle of friends that he could often be seen talking with Luna, and that she always seemed very able to soothe him and offer him good advice. Cho attempted to broach the subject further with her fellow Ravenclaw, but to no avail: Luna simply said that Harry was a very kind person who respected his privacy.

But ultimately, after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry found himself drawn back to Cho once again, reminded of what he had seen in her in the first place. Beneath her beauty - that long black hair, so much sleeker than his own - and her obvious Quidditch skill, she had proven herself to be loyal and brave, just like the other DA members who had answered his call. With Voldemort defeated, the Marietta situation finally seemed to be in the past, and Cho now appeared a bit more relatable to him in light of everyone who had been lost. Meeting with her during cleanup, she suddenly was much easier for Harry to talk to, and although it didn't feel appropriate to ask her right after the battle, within a few weeks Harry had reached out and proposed a "re-do" of the Valentine's Day that had gone so wrong.

This was a good call, it turned out, as it led to several more dates afterward, to Harry meeting Cho's parents and Cho meeting the Weasleys, and to seeing just how compatible they were. Each was kind, loyal, witty, and had a genuine respect for the other. Cho's grandfather, it turned out, had been a French-Chinese wizard who worked as an Auror during the First Wizarding War, and her parents had hoped to dissuade her from having a similarly dangerous career - although they were certainly able to admire what Harry did for a living (as was Cho herself). To assuage her parents' concerns (which, incidentally, now let Harry understand their hesitancy about her joining Dumbledore's Army), Cho had agreed to take up the family business, a small but charming antiques and artifacts shop in a remote wizarding village in Northumberland.

And yes, it was also true that their relationship had led to several nights of passion once they had reached that stage - which had led to tonight, which found Harry and Cho coupled together in her bedroom, on her uniquely structured bed. Unlike a typical bed with a headboard and footboard, Cho's was placed against the wall lengthwise with tall boards on both the left and right, allowing for a more enclosed space where they could do whatever they pleased. And what they both pleased at the moment was to be sitting upright in the center of the bed, Cho in Harry's lap while his erection was inside her. Her hands were on his shoulders while his arms were wrapped around her back, holding her close as he always liked to do, and caressing her long black hair.

Most of all, Harry was covering Cho's face with kisses, pausing occasionally to admire her closed eyes, her freckled nose, her giant serene closed-mouthed smile - and taken all together, her distinctly Asian facial features. Harry would never have fetishized Cho; ultimately, he was with her because he liked her personality and her values, which were far more important to him in a girlfriend than her ethnicity could possibly be. Still, he did have to admit, there was a certain quality to her beauty that he found exotic (for lack of a better word): after his experiences with the Dursleys, Harry had found he could quite appreciate people who looked, talked, or acted differently from his relatives. It helped remind him that the world was a bigger and more diverse place than simply what he had known from childhood.

Not to say it wasn't exceptionally obvious to him that she was Chinese right now: in addition to the calligraphy prints on her wall and the paper lanterns hanging from her ceiling, her ethnicity was at least partially responsible for why they were shagging. It was the last day of the Chinese New Year, after all, and an enjoyable celebration at her parents' house had culminated in them setting off fireworks together - after which Cho had pulled Harry aside and quietly recommended they go to her apartment for a _different_ kind of fireworks. And judging by her face, now flushed bright pink, he was very close to fulfilling that request. Cho's lips opened, revealing bared teeth as she hissed out a low but distinct _"fffuuuccckkk"_ before then lapsing into Cantonese words that Harry didn't know. His grasp of the language was rusty, but the context was clear, as he could now feel her tightening around him.

Once Harry had also released and pulled out of her, Cho fell back to the sheets in ecstasy, opening her eyes in time to see Harry pick up her leg, drape it over his shoulder, and place a series of kisses along her inner thigh. He could glance down at her nude body, all of which was beautiful - but perhaps the most delightful view was the most intimate one, as he could now make direct eye contact with her dark pink labia, with a patch of black hair above them, as sleek as that on her head.

"Mmm..." Cho sighed. "You know, this holiday reminds me... of how our ancestors are very important to us... sometimes, we practically worship them."

"Not surprising," Harry said gently. "We live in a world where you can talk to ghosts or portraits of your ancestors, and they can talk to you."

"Well, the point is - ah, that's good - oh my - my ancestors would probably blush quite a bit if they knew how much of me you were seeing right now, Harry Potter."

Harry chuckled mischievously. "Hey, if they're your _ancestors..._ then by definition they had some children of their own... so I think they'd know what this looks like. Besides..." - he used his free hand to gesture towards Cho's vulva - " _this_ is too beautiful a sight for anyone to object to."

"My, my," smirked Cho in response, "such a pity that _all_ British men aren't this charming. If they were... if they used flattery instead of brute force... we _might_ have been willing to let you have more than just Hong Kong."

"Yeah, but I don't even really _want_ Hong Kong," Harry replied. "All _I'd_ ever want to negotiate for would be a taste of the delicious Miss Cho Chang... and I believe I'll have it right now." And so saying, Harry lowered his mouth to her lower lips and kissed them for the second time tonight. Cho once again felt blissful as he lingered there a while before moving his mouth further up to her navel and then to her breast, kissing in a circular motion before finally sucking her dusky pink nipple, all while his other hand fondled her other breast. After a while, he switched places, using his mouth on this one instead; Cho continued enjoying all of it, even as she started to crave something of her own...

"Harry..." she whispered into his ear, "that view you had of me just now... may I have the same view of you, love?" With a nod, Harry moved into the reverse of the position they'd been in before, with his leg now draped over her shoulder. Cho looked down his leg with a beaming smile: all of her boyfriend was handsome, but something about seeing _these_ parts made her heart flutter. His penis, firm and stiff, conveying an image of strength and power - her eyes locked directly on its smooth head and small eye - his testicles, tender and delicate beneath, such a fascinating contrast...

And perhaps... after how well he'd treated her tonight, and with so much of the night still left, Harry deserved some special treatment of his own. After all, it was now the Year of the Rooster, an animal otherwise known as a cock... what better way to ring it in?

"Harry James Potter," Cho said in a hushed, sultry tone, "I am going to devour you whole like I've _never_ done before." And with her eyes on his member, and his eyes on her head, she slid her head down his leg, opened her lips, slid them softly around his first couple inches, and began to suck. As Harry watched in awe, Cho kept going, gradually moving her mouth farther and farther down. She knew where this would lead if she didn't pull back - but then again, that was her goal. This was _the_ one and only Harry Potter, and she alone had the distinction of being his girlfriend, and she was determined to taste his nectar. 

**II. Year of the Hare**

_2011 - The Antiques Shop_

In total, Harry and Cho's relationship had lasted five years. There had been no giant fight or dramatic break-up at the end; just a shared sense that they were both moving toward something different in their life. They stayed away from each other at first, but as time moved on and they started seeing each other at social gatherings, they were able to have friendly chats and ultimately part with laughs and smiles. Cho held out hope that Harry would be led back in her direction at some point, but instead the news gradually reached her that he was now in a relationship with Luna Lovegood - one which showed no signs of just being a casual fling.

Cho stayed single, focusing on her work, which had increased since her parents' retirement had left her the sole proprietor and employee of Chang's Magical Antiques and Artifacts. It was never a very busy shop - one which due to its scenic but remote location needed to reach people via word-of-mouth - but Cho was grateful for this. Since there were typically only one or two customers in the shop at any given time, she could give highly personalized attention to everyone who came in, along with detailed descriptions of the items they found most interesting.

Given the distance they still preferred to keep, Cho had not anticipated Harry ever being one of her customers again. It was true that she and her shop were responsible for giving Harry the decor he needed to finally polish up the old Black house, but Harry had been resistant to discussion whenever she had suggested that _she_ might also make a nice addition to the house. And indeed, Cho had to confess to herself, she had offered up much of this decor while keeping her tastes in mind along with his own - and she had begun to develop a strong mental image of herself as, eventually, _Mrs._ Harry Potter of 12 Grimmauld Place, Islington, London, United Kingdom.

And yet, as she stood at the checkout counter one day, clad in a light blue cardigan with her long black hair flowing free - she had decided a long time ago that she preferred this to a ponytail - she saw Harry Potter entering the shop as the bell above the door rang for his entry. Social gatherings with large numbers of people had been no challenge, but to see him again, to know that they were alone in the shop together and had not been alone together like this for a long time... Cho fought back the lump in her throat, stood upright with the most professional demeanor she could muster, and extended a warm greeting.

"Harry Potter! What brings you back to my shop after all these years?" Harry returned a nod and a smile; he hadn't changed much in appearance other than his hair had possibly gotten longer. "I suppose... your reason is more than just me."

"Hello Cho; well, you _do_ look just as beautiful as you always have - but, um, you see, Ron's birthday is coming up, and I wanted to give him something really unique and special, and I've been looking all over... and finally I thought, who do I know that has an especially nice shop, would have some good memorabilia, and happens to know a _ton_ about Quidditch? And the answer to all three of those questions was... Cho Chang."

Cho blushed slightly while collecting her thoughts. "You're in the right place indeed, Harry. Follow me to the Quidditch section." With Cho stepping out from behind the counter and leading the way, Harry followed her down brightly lit aisles of cauldrons, magic carpets, extremely old books and even older scrolls, and other ephemera. She finally reached a large glass cabinet at the store's back wall, with shelves inside that were covered with balls, pennants, programmes, and so many other objects. Harry would have loved to hear Cho speak about every single item in there, but she seemed focused on one very particular thing. With a silent _Alohomora_ , she tapped her wand against the cabinet door and then opened it.

"Now unless I'm mistaken..." Cho rummaged through the cabinet before finally grabbing hold of an old Quaffle that still seemed to be in very good condition, "Ronald _Weasley_ is a fan of the oh-so-long-suffering Chudley Cannons. _This_ Quaffle -" she playfully tossed it up into the air like a basketball and then caught it again, "is from their last championship in 1892, signed, you will note, by none other than their distinguished Keeper Ezekiel Horton, the first of the famed Horton line to play the sport. It's not overly expensive, considering its age - but for someone like Ron, it will be priceless." Cho handed the ball to Harry with a smile, and Harry handled it with glee.

"Oh, Cho," he said, "this is perfect. I _knew_ you'd have what I was looking for!" _At least as far as antiques are concerned,_ Cho thought with a grimace, and Harry noticed the change in her facial expression. "Hey - hey, Cho, is everything alright?"

Cho shook herself back into a friendly demeanor. "Oh, I'm fine - I'm really fine - it's just... I haven't been... _alone_ with you in a room like this for a long time, you know? It feels different - but hey, look, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad we... have one of those things where we can still talk to each other, yeah? I think we're doing alright." Cho gently closed the cabinet door again.

Harry wasn't sure if he felt any more capable of handling Cho's emotions now than he did back on Valentine's Day 1996 (was that _really_ fifteen years ago, he thought), but he did know that he knew her much better now than he had back then - in every sense of the word. As he tried to decide what response to offer, Cho spoke up again.

"I've heard everybody saying you're with Luna now. I can't say that's a bad choice. She's a good kind soul; I know her well enough from our days in the common room together. I still see her sometimes, but I've never dared to ask her about you. I always wondered if there might be something there between you - there was the Slug Club, and then you'd specifically wanted _her_ help in finding the diadem..." Cho paused to catch a breath, then continued: "Oh, and _of course_ the next one would be a Ravenclaw, right Harry? That does seem to be the House you've always been drawn to... and you're certainly a _worldly_ man. When I first heard the news, my first thought was 'Bloody hell, an _Irish_ girl now? Will he just keep going until he's shagged the entire United Nations?'"

She had been facing the cabinet with arms crossed while saying all this, but finally turned her face back to Harry. He suspected that last comment might have sounded more bitter if he'd heard her say it right after their breakup, but instead it just sounded like one of Cho's usual sharp witticisms. Her face didn't look angry, nor quite sad - more accurate, perhaps, to say it looked like she was defeated and worn-out from having carried all those thoughts in her head without ever saying them out loud.

"Well... no, actually," Harry managed to say, "I think I'll stop at Ireland. Luna's... well, you're right. She's someone very special, and I think... I think she's going to be the one, Cho. We've moved in together recently."

"Ah, well, there you go. She's a lucky woman, Harry. Please don't think... I'm mad at you, or at her. I know how deeply you can love. Sometimes things just... well, it's certainly a step _we_ never took together." Cho felt a painful sensation in her chest, and tried to hold it in by imagining herself as a child, practicing calligraphy the way she often did, sketching with a fine black brush... She was drawing the character _rěn_ , for "perseverance" or "endurance", but even this wasn't a comforting thought. Like so many words, it was made up of smaller ones - in this case, the sign for "knife" positioned directly above the sign for "heart". _We're an insightful people right down to our very language,_ Cho thought, _but damn it all if we aren't also blunt and grim so much of the time..._

Tears finally started forming in her eyes, and she reached into her cardigan pocket for a handkerchief to wipe them with. But as she did so, Harry set the Quaffle down on a nearby shelf and threw both his arms around her in an embrace. Cho dropped the handkerchief to the ground and instead buried her wet eyes in his shoulder while returning the embrace. Harry stroked her hair and let her cry, before finally telling her the words he'd managed to put together:

"I'm sorry, Cho. I'm sorry it wasn't going to be you. I'll never forget you, you know. I haven't yet, and I won't. If it was going to be us, it would have been. But... but remember... you're the only other person who's ever been in my life that way. I learned about love, and closeness, from a lot of different people, but I know so much of it from _you._ You, Cho Chang. You're my first true love, and no-one can ever take that or those years away from you."

Harry released her and picked his Quaffle back up; although the expression on Cho's face was still tearful, she now had a large smile. "Harry..." she said softly, "please, I would never try to upsell anyone, you least of all, but if you'll come back to my office... I have something that I think will help you keep Luna with you forever."

"I'm interested," said Harry, and after Cho made a quick check that there was nobody outside the shop's front window who might be coming in soon, she led him into the back, through a door labelled _Cho Chang - PRIVATE_ via another _Alohomora_ charm, and then pulled a decorative box down from one of her many shelves.

"Has Luna told you what a gytrash is?" she asked.

Harry shook his head. "It doesn't ring a bell."

"Well, then," Cho returned to her professional speaking tone for appraisals, "this will not only highly impress her as an artifact but give you a chance to look impressive with _your_ knowledge as well. A gytrash is a spectral hound - which can sometimes even look like a horse - that lives deep in the densest, darkest forests of England, Scotland, and central Europe. It is lightning-fast, ferocious, flees at the sight of any light, and is nearly impossible to trap. So what do you think that means?"

"It means that very few magizoologists have ever been able to capture and study it?"

"Precisely," Cho replied, "which means there are only a handful of magizoologists in the world that have ever owned a specimen like _this._ " She opened the box with three precise taps, and inside, nestled on a soft cushion, was a large jagged tooth. "The reason I've kept this in my office is that it's the only one I've ever come across - and I've been waiting for the right buyer."

Harry looked at the gytrash fang in awe, and could already see Luna's face lighting up with surprise and joy when he showed it to her. She did own an impressive number of specimens, it was true, but she certainly didn't have anything this rare. "How much for everything?" he asked.

"The Quaffle is worth 1,000 Galleons; this fang is worth 2,500 Galleons. I'll sell you the pair for 3,000 Galleons. Consider it a... discount from your first love."

Harry chuckled. "I'm only worth 500 Galleons?"

"I'm just a humble antiques shop owner, Harry. It isn't cheap for me to get ahold of these things. If I could afford the loss, I'd let you have them both on the house." _And if you'd tell me that_ I _could be the one you spent your life with,_ Cho thought with a deep hunger in her heart and stomach, _you'd never have to pay for anything else in here again._

And then Harry was once again embracing her and thanking her, and Cho was embracing him back, and she was recalling how in a past relationship this probably would have been the point where he pressed her against the wall and shagged her standing up, and she would have bit her fist to keep from making noise while he drove her over the edge... but she could tell that Harry had no such ideas today.

"I love you, Cho Chang," Harry told her. "Not the same way I did before, but it's still love. I know I can rely on you, and that's what I've always wanted most in my friends."

"And I love you... Harry James Potter."

Harry paid at the checkout counter, bid Cho a final thanks and farewell, and she watched him walking down the street until he either Apparated or simply disappeared from view, she couldn't tell which. Then she locked the shop's front door from within, placed the _Back in 10 Minutes_ sign on it, and returned to her office. She sat at her desk, closed her eyes, and thought of a hundred different images of her and Harry together: dancing, hiking, flying kites, attending Quidditch matches... and some images which proved to be more X-rated, such as a certain Chinese New Year six years ago. That was to be expected, she supposed: five years together had allowed her and Harry to be intimate very often, to see and show the parts of themselves they only wanted the other to see, and to arrange their bodies into so many different ways of meshing together, from simple to oh-so elaborate...

And then, in her mind, Cho saw images of Harry and Luna instead: how happy she must have been to be asked on a first date, how thrilled they both must be to see the other arriving whenever they met. She saw Harry and Luna hugging and kissing, staying up late on a rooftop or in a field so Luna could point out the stars - she always had been _very_ good at Astronomy - and she saw Luna comforting Harry when he was sad, soothing him when he was angry. Where Cho used to see herself in a wedding dress, excitedly walking down the aisle to officially become Harry's bride, she could now even see Luna in that dress and down that aisle instead.

And Cho could see herself at that very wedding, smiling with happy tears instead of sad ones, finally offering up a tremendous round of applause. She was Harry Potter's first love - something which indeed would never change - and it was still easy to want to be his _only_ love. But she knew these desires would fade, even if they needed more time to do so, while the happy memories remained. She had been with Harry Potter long enough to know that he was a good man, and she didn't dare try to tear him away from his true happiness.

She loved him too much to do that.


End file.
